2.8 Check your answers

To check your answers, view the marked miscue sheet. I color-coded my typescript to keep certain features distinct: the miscue markings are completed in green, the level of graphic similarity is completed in orange, and the miscue questions for the third procedure are completed in purple pen.

My marking of the miscues and yours should be the same. However, analysis of the cuing systems does have some wiggle room. I can certainly see where I might think a sentence makes sense and someone else does not. The answers to analyzing are not always crystal clear. Many times I don’t note a graphic similarity if the word produced by the student and the text contain just one letter in common and the word at hand is large. Most of your decisions will become based on your knowledge of the student in cooperation with the criteria outlined for analyzing the miscues.

Amy’s retelling

After Amy read Isabelefant, she retold the story to me unaided. The following is a portion of transcript from Amy’s unaided retelling and then aided retelling. Note the questions I asked in the aided retelling. My questions sought to build on important events and details as originally supplied by Amy.

Unaided retelling (partial)

Teacher

Great reading, Amy. Please tell me this story in your own words.

Amy

Well, it was about a girl, well really a girl elephant. Her name is Isabelefant. She is really small for her age and she has to go to school in a new town so she’s nervous. She likes to get big words out of a special dictionary. Sometimes it is hard to tell what she’s saying because she uses made up words to sound smart. She got on the school bus and couldn’t find a seat, but then a bear in a wheelchair shared his wheelchair seat with her because she’s small and didn’t take up a lot of room.

Aided retelling (partial)

Teacher

You remembered a lot from your reading. You mentioned Isabelefant going to school in a new town. Why is she in a new town?

Amy

Well, she was either going to live near her grandmother or with her grandmother. I think her grandmother must have lived far away and was lonely or too old to take care of herself.

Teacher

You told me the Isabelefant couldn’t find a seat when she got on the school bus, why not?

Amy

I think the other kids, you know the animals, didn’t want her to sit with them because she was small and plus the bus driver was mean so she didn’t want to sit near him.

Specific prompting

I specifically wanted to build on information supplied by Amy to get at parts of the story left untold in her unaided retelling. Also, I wanted to check if Amy’s difficulty in certain parts of the story interfered with comprehension. As you heard from the audio reading by Amy, she struggled with the word “crowded” both times it appeared in the story when discussing the bus. Amy was able to glean Isabelefant’s difficulty with selecting a seat and even made a sensible inference to why the elephant could not find a seat, given that Amy consistently miscued on the word, “crowded.” This inferencing using information comprehended is a good reading strategy. While Amy did miss a piece to the story, the reason for Isabelefant’s loss for a seat, as a teacher I saw a strength to Amy’s skills as a reader by investigating miscues and unaided retelling together. Also, I am informed as Amy’s teacher that certain word attack skills need to be taught to further Amy’s reading.

Summary

Finally, here is my summary of Amy’s reading. If your answers for analysis differed from mine, so will your percentages as recorded on the final summary.

	Question #1 (syntax)		Question #2 (semantics)
	number	percent	number	percent
Yes, acceptable	61	84.7	52	72.2
No, not acceptable	11	15.3	20	27.8
Total	72	100%	72	100%

	Question #3 (meaning change)
	number	percent
No meaning change	34	65.4
Partial meaning change	14	26.9
Yes, major meaning change	4	7.7
Total (count only those coded, not dashes)	52	100%

	Graphic (visual) similarity
	number	percent
High	29	43.3
Some	33	49.2
None	5	7.5
Total	67	100%

• Next: Extensions

Miscue analysis

• Next: Extensions
• Previous: Practice story

Learn more

Related topics

• Search LEARN NC for more resources on authentic assessment, formative assessment, miscue analysis, and reading.